by Roman aka jar

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Some quick news around Spherewars, you know the company who makes Hombre Toro!
Jordi from their team informed me that the rules will soon be available in english language and i guess this is a start of something really worth a look. Some impressions:

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Another Painting Jam with some serious talk about Painting Motivation.
I thought this might be interesting to some of you so let's quote Cody C as i came up to this PJ during answering a tsunami of Emails - thanks for that email (i hope it is ok to post it ultrapublic in the jungle :D)

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"Hello Roman. May I start off by saying how much of an inspiration you are to me. Ive been painting minis for around 4 years now, and only about a year ago did I really want to become a good painter. Since then I have been learning new techniques and trying hard to understand concepts like zenthial lighting and color theory.

The advice I'm looking for is how do you keep yourself motivated when you feel or have felt disappointed in your work? Whenever i start a new project I get so hyped up about the image i have in my head, but it never turns out the way i like it due to the lack experience/skill. Its kind of like my head knows what to do, just my hands aren't up to par What makes it worse is that i see great mini's, like yours, and feel un-motivated because I feel that I'll never be that good. Then what tends to happen is the project tends to get abandoned all together.

I've been on a 6 month break from painting and I just ordered a nice Black Templar army that I'm really excited about. I don't want this to become another abandoned project and I want to break this bad habit.

Any Advice or words of wisdom you can offer me?

thank again for you time,
Cody C"

My answer

Words of Wisdom? - I guess not from me but I make a fine morning wisdom tea for me now and maybe my words will contain wis... nope, maybe they'll contain tea on the keyboard :D

In fact I exactly know what you mean. Always when there is a vision the mind and heart explodes in pure joy of just starting the project. Man, your question really makes my head go round at the moment. I am really taking my time, drinking tea and thinking. During the path to walk to a finished project there are several problems like the ones you have discribed. First joy and power, then hard work with maybe something not working as planned and finally the third and final step finishing something off. This often looks the same like a motivation curve - in the end of the painting process you are often outpowered, not so motivated anymore and not as happy as you have planned with the end result of your project.

So let's say there are 3 steps I go during a project - I somehow switched my motivation positions on these 3 steps. I am not so happy with explosions of new ideas as i have learned that i most time won't achieve what this first brain lightning shows as a vision - that is why i keep my motivation low, at least I try to think about it and let it rise or slow it down during the process. Second Step, the painting and i am in pure joy. I just paint without a hardcore plan I have to follow. Letting colour decide, letting my experience grow, letting it all grow up without a bad feeling of a plan that might be there out and hunting for my mind. Pure joy. Third step is to finish a project. So far, i had a vision and pure joy - that is ok. I am sometimes not that happy with the final result - seems like the same problem you describe, BUT it is important to see several points now and making a little review on the project:

1. You have finished something (most important)

2. When something is finished you have to be proud however it might look in the end or even it is far from your plan you had in the beginning.

3. Automaticly your skill and experience rises during joyful painting. Painting is like a muscle, you just can't get a big one from short and not regular training sessions.

4. See it always as a travel. A travel where you only can get your own experience by painting. Sure you can get inspiration everywhere but no one can help you with your own made experience.

5. You just have to accept that this is the way it is. You can see your painting experience like some kind of experience bar. It rises and falls due your invested painting time, not your motivation.

6. You can now have a look on your finished project and think about it. Are there places you would do different in the next projects. Are there areas or techniques you tested you really had problems with - what were these problems exactly - try to find out for your own and you can also name them like you want - it is your experience that your thinking about. Don't fuck your mind up with too many high qualtiy miniature painter sland describtion words.

7. You can do several different things to grow faster in your painting skills, like visiting a painting class, painting meetings with friends to share ideas and experiences, read articles, watch DVD's and stuff. This only will make your skill grow not your experience. Your own experience grows only at your workbench when you enjoy your painting, try things on your own and accept the fact that you are walking a road to learn, not a plan or a goal that you try to achieve via hardcore mind destruction and no joy. This brings you to see the way of Happy Painting :)

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So in the end I would love to say my words of wisdom: Calm down. For sure I too have these lacks in motivation. They are like phaseal moments, some can last months, others just hours. Realize them, they are pretty normal but not your finished projects shall be the reason for those motivation problems. It is best to make powerful painting session - they can also last weeks - and accepting the lack of motivation as a relax time.

It is that simple. When you finish a miniature, wether for gaming or display or just for fun and nothing behind, make sure you don't get dissapointed of it. This may completly take you to the dark side and is like you made a level in a Computer game with your evil Barbarian Character and get dissapointed by it. Sure you can skill the warrior wrong but in the end he will be strong, no matter what.
So don't feel dissapointed by your ownwork, be proud, whatever it might look and grow from your joy.

by Roman aka jar

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

We had some friends from Austria at our place for the last days and it was such a great visit with great fun, great chats, great food, great painting and a lot of joy of painting in the end. That is why the last days have been a bit unbusy in the jungle. Some random Work in Progress - more impressions soon in the video that is in the making - also Chris's box is finished by Raffa and me :)

by -Matt Cexwish-

Hi Di Ho!

Sup Dudes... After an Amazing Marathon of writing Applications for Architecture Offices once again which Goal it is to find a Big Ass Company who will then Exploid my juvenile naivety for a Full Time Job (Yes, the Search has been successful already...:)... Lucky me...) I can now finally post the Newest (and kinda Special...) Video for this "Wednesday", The Light Of Redemption - Sabotage At Valve 86... It is a Special Project since you might not have seen it so far, although it has Won Gold at the German Golden Demon back in 2007... I remember taking some pictures and assembling a nice Photo Collage only to notice that my Photography Skills were not as Advanced to deal with the Depth of the Elements, resulting in a somewhat blurry and crappy Picture... I decided to remove it from my CMON Gallery and wait til I got it right... Never happened til that HD Cam came along... So I am very happy finally sharing this Piece with you after such a long time...:)...

The Story behind it is that I wanted to build a Duel that tries to Question a lot of things... First of, I am not happy about the General Black And White, Light Vs. Darkness Theme at all any more (even though the little Sign say exactly this...^-^...)... I wanted to create Two Characters, that have switched their stereotypical "Good Vs. Evil" Roles, Characters that are more Complex and deliver more layers... The Evil is Symbolized by the Saboteur, a Terrorist that plants a Pipe Bomb at a neuralgic and very Important place to maximize his damage... In Contrary to stereotypical belief of the Evil Thug Guys that come at you swinging a Baseball Bat and Grunting a lot, his actions are very planned, a Calculating Evil that is Intelligent... His Posture and Frame it rather Fragile, yet very Dynamic and Quick... A Chaotic Rune shows the Spot where his Heart was tainted by the Chaos...

His Opponent is a Redemptionist that sports a Huuumongeous Eviscerator... He is obsessed with the idea of purging the Unclean, the Bad and the Ugly with any means possible... The fact that he doesn´t even bother to wear any proper Armor shows that he would immediately sacrifice his Life in order to Fight Evil... His Head itself is on Fire, symbolically showing his Hot Temper and reckless and fierce Spirit... I strongly doubt that you can think straight if you wear a Campfire on your Head, but well, who am I to judge...:)... Maybe he is Repenting for some kind of Sin he has committed in his earlier life, unable to Forget or Forgive himself or anyone else he sees that way... That´s why he jumps into the Fight head on from Above, trying hard to eventually find his inner Peace that Day...

The Scene portraits the very Moment after the Sabotage has been discovered, right before the Two Characters clash... Both Miniatures are more or less simple conversions from Forge World and Warhammer Fantasy Parts, the rest is Scratched... The Palette of the Saboteur is Cold while it is Warm on the Redemptionist (Cold, Blue Heart Vs. Hot, Yellow Flames from the Head is a better Title anyways...:D...)...

Looking back at this I feel as if I was on the right Path to do something true to what I want to Create, but Story and Scene wise I would like to change a lot of things... I think it would have been much better to paint the Light Contrast super exaggerated (going from Pitch Black and using just a handful of Light Sources like the Obvious Fire, the Blue Heart, the Lenses and maybe something more on the Base...)...The Truss the Redemptionist is jumping from is not a Great Solution, It would have been much better to Work on a more Tense Pose for Both Characters, too (could use a lot of Drawings... Much, much more Bended Postures, much more Stuff flying around, more abstract Elements...)... But all in all I am satisfied with the Result taking in to account the Year it was done...

So yes, hope you enjoy this Weeks Presentation...:)... Next Week we will drag that Old Hag out of her Cave again accompanied by some Wicked Tune, so please stay around...^_^...

Ah, and as always, This Project is FOR SALE... Please feel free to Contact us for more Information...

by Roman aka jar

posted by Roman, Jarhead, kong

This article is again something different.Me, Roman will write it up and all the stuff I show and talk about is done by Robert aka muhani.He is still alive but busy with life and after i found the photos on my computer I have asked him if I could write this article up to have it in the jungle collection of useful articles.

ExplanationRobert is such a genius when it comes to scratchbuild that i am sure this will bring a lot of inspiration to everyone. In fact it does to me that is why i want to write it up. He is a genius and a madmen and if you want to try this at home make sure you have time, much of it :D

This might really get something pretty funny as I am just guessing what Robert has done by looking at the photos. To you readers a warning that if there might appear something that you don't get or don't understand please feel free to hit the comments. Let's get it on.

Genius Scratchbuild LampsbyRobert aka muhaniwrite up and translatation from the photos by roman

Robert's projects are always like great adventures, neither they are big or small. His biggest project so far "Frutti di Mare" is one of my personal all time favourites, because there is a lot of friendship between us Apes in this project. This little article will bring you close to the progress Robert did during building up the lamps on the back of the ship from nothing - scratchbuild.

First Robert did cut off some round plastic fence parts in the size he planned and glued them in shape. You can see on his well prepared sketch how he worked and checked for the perfect size. Robert made 12 of this pieces and glued them together.

Robert used some plastic card he cutted in form of a hexagon, used the size he found from glueing the pieces he did before together. Robert did build up many of them. 2 on the top of the lamps and 2 for the lower part of the lamps - some more small ones will follow later on.

He used one small hexagon to glue together the pieces he did before, for sure there was some planning ahead.

Now a blob of Milliput was used to build up material on the lower lamp hexagon, he pressed the end of a fork into the Milliput to achieve the form he wanted. Might not work with all forks available - you always got to check the back first. At this point Robert really scares me :D

more, already thinking about form

more, forgetting about the form

using the back of a fork to press in the form, while the Milliput is still fresh

progress

In the enxt step he did build up the upper lamp hexagon, same procedure but less milliput as the final form would be different. He also did this on the smallest ones - i guess the photos say more than my words. He did not went completly to the end of the plastic card hexagon. He left a little space free. After the Milliput was dry he used a rasp to make the edges sharp and worked down the plastic card until it was at the same height with the Milliput.

blob

I would guess he used a knife blade here to gently stroke in the form

small ones

rasping

The work with the rasp went further and brought a 45° ankle to the hexagons edges. A hole was drilled and filled with punched sheet. Now he used tool that can produce different sized bails. He used it on thin plastic card to get 8 side pieces for the upper lamp construction. Thin bars of plastic card have been glued in place to get the + in the holse. At this point I would have tried to convince Robert to go to Rehab, but check the photos which explain everything themself:

It now comes together finally. Parts were prepared to get together. Robert used the upper part of an ink cartridge to make small big candles at the inner bottom of the lamps. Vallejo Putty 401 was used to fill up absorbtions in the pieces. Robert is such a gringo!

Ink Cartridge

Now he started painting the pieces. Making sure he is able to really hit every place he painted them single. I have no idea what colour he used up here, i see he works with light and shadows in the colour hue but i just can't guess what colour this is - maybe he himself does this later on in the comments.

Parts were now glued together and the clear basic painting was weathered with some brownish washes. The candles have been painted too and a self sculpted seagull was brought in place.

Micro Kristal Clear, which you can also use for real lenticulars was used together with a toothpick to bring up the glas to the lamps. I guess he did this in several runs as i can still spot some open "windows" which have to be filled up. Maybe he went through them all in one run, whatever he has done i would expect some care and detail working moments with much of checking for the correct applyment.

This takes a while to dry. It was about time concentrating on the colour of bird poo with some additional plastic putty in it to make it look like real material and not painted poo. Apply it in place and try to make it realistic - check inspiration here!

After the lamps glass was finallly dried out the lamps have been applied to the ship by using the pinning method. They are still removable for the further on painting process.

The final project of Frutti di Mare can be found behind the following links, if you like to vote or drop a comment you can do this here:

Final wordsThanks to Robert again for giving me the oppourtunity to write this down. Hope it could inspire and motivate to build your own lamps now. If you got any questions left feel invited to ask them in the comments.

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